Auras

Path of Exile has many auras and it can sometimes get confusing what each of them do. Here I will be going over all the auras in Path of Exile. You can find the list of auras in Path of Exile here. I will be talking about Blasphemy and Heralds in a later article.

Auras are basically spells that can be cast that reserve mana. As long as they are reserving mana, they buff one specific aspect of your character.

Grace

Grace is one of the most popular auras to use because of the strong defensive mechanics it provides. It provides flat evasion to your character and your allies. Builds using this that also have a little bit of dexterity on the tree can reach a high amount of evasion. In endgame builds don’t really need damage anymore and many opt for this setup. Many builds also run Iron Reflexes and run Grace. Grace is sometimes better than Determination because Determination scales armor while Grace adds flat armor (converted from evasion). It all depends on how much other armor you have. You need to do the math yourself.

Haste

Haste is another versatile aura. It provides both attack speed and cast speed to your characters. Many Spell Casters which cannot benefit from Damage Auras use this. Some low-life builds such as Mjolner and SRS also use this. Haste also adds passive defense to your builds because the quicker your attacks are, the faster it is to get away. It may not seem like much, but it matters and this is the reason why many builds drop Spell Echo as well.

Hatred

This is probably the most popular aura for all physical damage builds use. It adds a % of your physical damage as cold damage. No other skill besides Herald of Ash does that. If you are looking for a damage boost for your physical build then this is hands down the best skill to use. It is used in every physical damage build imaginable. I would wager it is the most popular aura of all time as well.

Purity of Ice

This aura adds Cold Resistances and increases your Cold Resistance cap. Many cold builds use this to increase their survivability against reflect. There are probably more effective defensive setups using blasphemy out there so I would not suggest using this unless you really want to. One thing to note is that the Cold Resistance cap buff is increased by % aura effect.

Clarity

This aura is unique in the regard that it reserves flat mana. This can be used to your advantage by stacking a lot of mana in a build. Clarity provides flat mana regeneration to help with skill mana costs. I would use this on a spell-caster as they are the ones usually with mana troubles. Another option to fix mana issues is Blasphemy-Warlords Mark. This option adds life leech as well.

Discipline

This is also another popular aura. 99% of all CI and Low-Life build use it. It adds flat energy shield to you and your allies. It gets scaled with % energy shield nodes and this means Discipline can add upwards of 2000-3000 energy shield onto your character.

Purity of Elements

This aura adds all Elemental Resistances and it increases every Elemental resistance cap. Keep in mind it does not increase the cap as much as the elemental-specific purities. I would not use this aura unless you need to as there are much more useful auras out there. Elemental resistance cap is a must so use it if you need to.

Purity of Lightning

This aura adds Lightning Resistances and increases your Lightning Resistance cap. Many lightning builds use this to increase their survivability against reflect. There are probably more effective defensive setups using blasphemy out there so I would not suggest using this unless you really want to. One thing to note is that the lightning Resistance cap buff is increased by % aura effect.

Wrath

This aura is quite popular among attack-based elemental builds as it adds a huge amount of flat lightning damage to you and your allies. It also adds % more lightning damage to spells. Pretty much every elemental attack-based build uses this spell. I would hesitate to use it on spell-casters because its bonus towards them is not as influential.

Anger

This aura is similar to Wrath because it adds flat elemental (fire) damage to attacks. It is also used in most builds that Wrath is used in but Wrath provides more damage so is more widely used. Low-Life builds than can run both Wrath and Anger usually use Anger. One aspect in which this aura differs from Wrath is the fact that this adds flat fire damage to spells while wrath adds % damage.

Determination

This aura adds % more armor to your character substantially increasing your defenses. I would usually use grace with iron reflexes instead of this aura unless you have a very high amount of flat armor stacked from your gear. The tankiest armor builds do not hesitate to use this aura, and due to the fact that it provides more damage instead of increased, this aura is very powerful.

Purity of Fire

This aura adds Fire Resistances and increases your Fire Resistance cap. Many fire builds use this to increase their survivability against reflect. There are probably more effective defensive setups using blasphemy out there so I would not suggest using this unless you really want to. One thing to note is that the Fire Resistance cap buff is increased by % aura effect.

Vitality

This aura provides % increased life to your character. It is mainly used on tanky characters that stack life and defenses. An example of this is Righteous Fire. Righteous Fire is a great build to use this with because RF needs life regeneration, and it stacks life as its primary form of damage. It does not have much use among most builds but it shines in some.